shapes of defiance

Three films, three dif­fer­ent forms of civil defi­ance, rebel­lion and resis­tance. All over the world, people are fight­ing back to pro­tect the land, the air, our future. These are exam­ples that encour­age us.  It is often young people who are the dri­ving force in oppos­ing the pre­vail­ing con­di­tions. And often they are women, like the two pro­tag­o­nists in the film ONCE UPON A TIME IN A FOREST by Virpi Suu­tari. They are con­cerned with pre­serv­ing the forests in Fin­land, which are seen as an eter­nal­ly renew­able resource and exploit­ed by the forest indus­try. At the fore­front of a move­ment, they oppose the machines. They know that their form of civil dis­obe­di­ence can have consequences.  In west­ern Canada, two strong women are also on the front line of a move­ment oppos­ing the Cana­di­an gov­ern­men­t’s plans. Their fight against the con­struc­tion of a pipeline high­way through their ances­tral ter­ri­to­ry has been going on for over ten years. Film­mak­ers have been fol­low­ing this strug­gle just as long. The result is a unique doc­u­ment of a coura­geous rebel­lion that has hardly been noticed in Europe. … read more